"The first killer app was VisiCalc. This early spreadsheet turned the Apple II from a hobbyist toy to a business computer. VisiCalc came with room for improvement, though. In addition, a new architecture and operating system, the Intel-based IBM PC and MS-DOS, also needed a spreadsheet to be taken seriously. That spreadsheet, released in early 1983, would be Lotus 1-2-3, and it would change the world. It became the PC's killer app, and the world would never be the same. On May 14, IBM quietly announced the end of the road for 1-2-3, along with Lotus Organizer and the Lotus SmartSuite office suite. Lotus 1-2-3's day is done." Impressive 30 year run.

Possibly, although since I didn't name the file as part of the launch, I still have to deal with dialogs to get out.

What's more annoying to me is that "discoverability" of efficient shortcuts is quickly fading. Whereas the original GUI usability specs seemed to always insist on identifying "shortcuts" next to menu items (e.g., ^X for Edit>Cut), the new touch interfaces go to the opposite extreme. I had my corporate iPad over a year before someone showed me that dragging 4 fingers (not 3, not 5) from the bottom would show me loaded apps. How the @#$ was I supposed to figure THAT out!

So it's a bit of a relief that my Fortune 50 company is moving to a more traditional SUSE Linux desktop where keyboard shortcuts aren't just allowed but encouraged. My productivity has really soared since automation returned to the office.

But I'm a dinosaur. We'll all be frantically waving our hands and shouting at our monitors in a few years, I'm certain. Guess I need the exercise anyway. ;-)

It's all in the manual, but the problem is nothing comes with a manual anymore.

I have the IBM DOS manual here and you could kill a person if you hit him on the head with it. Now DOS is simple 'n' easy (not including CONFIG.SYS voodoo of course). So how come it has a rather large book while an advanced operating system like OS X or Windows comes with nothing?

You can find many hints 'n' clever tricks regarding a whole range of hard- and software products. So developers are building them in, but they are announced nowhere.